Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Same for you, Will.' I grinned, and waited for him to bite.
'Fuck off!' he said, as I had known he would; and together, we strode off into the West.
'Ancient Bedouin tomb,' said Moez, crouching at a series of unnatural mounds, where
stones had been placed in a circle and still pierced the sand. Awad had tipped his turban re-
spectfully at them as we had passed, but the camels didn't seem to have any compunction
about munching on the bits of thorn scrub growing from the graves.
We had been walking through the punishing heat for eight hours and, though the day
was getting old, the sun was just as fierce. Pausing to rest in the tiny shade of an acacia
tree, I drank greedily from my canteen, only to realise that I had, long ago, drunk my day's
fill. According to our thermometer, it had been 56 degrees in the sun, and almost 50 in the
shade. 'We'll have to be cannier tomorrow,' I said.
'Wouldn't it be better to walk at night?' asked Ash.
From up on Burton's back, Ahmad snorted. 'The camels would break their legs. No,' he
went on, Moez translating, 'we should walk early, from six till eleven. Then again from
four until sunset.'
Will grimaced. 'Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun . . .'
'We can still cover 40km a day,' said Ahmad and, singing to his camel, continued to
walk.
We tramped on. Now that the day was fading to dusk, the edge was coming off the heat.
The dunes, soft underfoot, gave way with each step; no amount of walking, not even the
two thousand miles since the source of the river, could prepare a body for how difficult it
was to walk here. Every time the sand touched my feet, my body glistened with new sweat.
I seemed to be losing as much water in perspiration as I was drinking.
'You know,' said Moez, 'it's hard to imagine now, but once, only a few thousand years
ago, this was all lush and fertile savannah - and before that, a swamp, or maybe even a
vast lake, long before the desert started to form. It isn't just your footsteps in the sand that
fade away - it's the land itself, changing all the time. This was where the agricultural re-
volution happened. It was here people started farming for the very first time. There were
cattle cults that looked after huge herds, all grazing on rich grasses for as far as the eye can
see. Now - only this . . .'
By fall of the first night, we had covered 40km, but drunk twice as much water as we
had planned. Our bodies hungered for it. Making camp beside an outcrop of jagged sand-
stone, we broke open the army ration packs Will had brought along and refuelled. On the
edge of camp, Ahmad and Awad began their prayers, then sang to the camels as they fed
them sorghum and massaged their necks to aid the digestion.
We ate in silence, so drained by the day that even idle conversation seemed too much.
The only sound to disturb the silence of the desert was Ahmad's song, then the chatter as
